Away Team

Of the many bands I’ve followed over the last two decades, only a handful have had a strong staying power in my musical library…one such band is Atlanta based powerhouse Sevendust.  When I first saw Sevendust, back on a cold winter night twelve years ago at the Webster Theater in Hartford, CT, I knew they were going somewhere.  Never did I dream that I would be seeing them grace the stage at Woodstock ’99, let alone have the chance to interview the backbone of the band, iconic drumming idol Morgan Rose.  While Woodstock was 1999′s biggest concert event… flash forward to 2010, the year in which I finally got to chat with rock’s biggest drummer on a stop of rock’s biggest tour… the Carnival of Madness.  Eight albums, one rockstar wife, and one Playmate of the Month wife later, there were many questions to be answered.  How does one get the answers to twelve years worth of questions into twelve minutes worth of conversation?  Sit back, crack open a cold one, and find out.

AWAY-TEAM:  Well Morgan, congratulations on the tour, and the album Cold Day Memory, which I think is destined to become a classic in the Sevendust catalog.

MORGAN ROSE:  I appreciate it man.

AWAY-TEAM:  I’m really impressed with it.  Now, with Cold Day Memory you kinda seem to have gotten back to the core Sevendust sound.  Do you attribute that to the chemistry of having a guy like Clint Lowery back in the fold?

MORGAN ROSE:  Oh yeah, 100 percent.  Ya know, we did three records without him, and we missed him.  You know that’s like bringing in that fifth element, ya know.  I mean, the sound of our band was always the heavy riffs, the melodic choruses, and the three different voices.  Really, to be honest, the last time we really had a decent amount of power on a record was Animosity, because we were dictated to during Seasons alot, so it still sounded like us, but we were told what to do.  So we had to kinda groove our direction that way, and we like that record, but Animosity was really the last time that all five of us had the power to be able to do exactly what we wanted, so this was the first time since then, and I think that it showed for sure.

MORGAN ROSE:  For sure.  Ya know, being a fan first and foremost, you can really see that you guys are clicking on all cylinders again.

MORGAN ROSE:  Yeah, definitely.  We’re excited.  We’re really happy to get him back, and get our little family back together, and get in the studio.  Because, you know, we did a lot of touring before we were able to get in there with him, so…it was nice to get back in the studio.

AWAY-TEAM:  Now, that album was actually released on your own label 7 Bros.  How did 7 Bros. come about?  Was it kinda the product of “We’ve been fucked over by TVT, we’ve been fucked over by Winedark, we KNOW we’re not gonna fuck ourselves over”? I mean, how did that come around?

MORGAN ROSE:  Uh… Yeah, it was kind of a partnership thing we did through Warner Music, ya know for the first time we were gonna get the real distribution through WEA.  We were gonna have the machine through Warner to borrow people to work for us, and help us out.  So, even though it’s our own label, and considered an indie, we’ve got the resources all around us, and you add our management In De Goot into the fold, all of a sudden… you’ve got a massive machine at radio with In De Goot; you know Bill McGathy has the been the godfather of radio for a very long time.  The combination put us in a position where we felt we had enough behind us to be able to pull this off on our own.

AWAY-TEAM:  You’re widely considered to be one of the best drummers of all-time…

MORGAN ROSE:  (laughs)

AWAY-TEAM:  truthfully, you see it everywhere, it is what it is, right?

MORGAN ROSE:  That’s crazy.  I’m totally flattered that people think that.

AWAY-TEAM:  The most amazing thing to me, is that it’s hard enough to play at the level that you do, but to sing at the same time?  That just blows my mind.  I mean guys like you, and Phil Collins always amazed me because he had such a great voice, but could play the shit out of the drums at the same time.  I’ve always wondered, how do you manage to keep your voice holding one note, and your hands and feet holding another?

MORGAN ROSE:  I don’t know.  I mean it all really started years ago… I’d be writing parts for other people to do and practice, I’d come up with these parts for other people to sing, and they’d be like “Well why don’t you just sing it?”  And I’m like “I don’t wanna be hindered with a microphone back here”, of course the stupid headset came into play, and that was like, that’ll be so you don’t have to move a mic around.  As embarassing as that thing might be, I was glad when Tommy Lee wore it, because it opened the door so I would feel a little less embarassed.  Ya know, it is what it is.  It was one of those things where I developed some ideas, doing something in a certain voice, and everyone just told me they wanted me to do it.  In one way, I wish I never would’ve brought it up, in another way it helped define our sound a bit having that extra voice.

AWAY-TEAM:  You say, in one way you wish you never did it.  Is it because it’s just kind of a burden as your trying to play?

MORGAN ROSE:  Uh… it’s not hard to do, I think it’s probably more that I’m just completely combustive back there.  Ya know I’d like to just lose my mind, and I do the best that I can, but ya know that things in my way and…I mean I’ve gotta do all kinds of prep work to make sure that thing doesn’t fly off.  So I use a mic that’s not really a state of the art microphone, just because it’s the only one that’ll stay on my head the way that I play.  So I’ve got a mic that’s not really the highest quality, just because I wanna make sure I can play the way that I want to play.  But at the same time, that voice lends itself to distortion, so if the mic breaks up a little bit it kinda adds to the sound live.

AWAY-TEAM:  Does having Clint back in the fold lift some of that vocal burden from you?

MORGAN ROSE:  Uh, yeah, ya know the harmony stuff was always left up to him.  When he was gone Vinny and John took over that area.  So it’s not so much of a change as far as how much I’m doing, but on this record, ya know Clint has quite a heavy voice of his own, so he took a little bit of the grunt, or some of that work from me, so I don’t have to worry about doing as much.  So yeah, it’s helped out in lightening the workload on me a little bit.

AWAY-TEAM:  You guys have been out touring and playing for a long time.  I remember the first time I saw you guys, back in ’98, at a little club called the Webster Theater in Hartford, you were there with Godsmack, Kid Rock, and I think One Minute Silence, and Second Coming.  You’ve come a long way from that thus far, in fact I even saw you guys play at Woodstock ’99.  So what’s been the absolute highlight of your career so far?

MORGAN ROSE:  I mean, ya know when we went over and played for the troops, that was a big highlight for us.  We played for some big crowds, and we played for some small ones, but overall to think that we’re just “five little rednecks from Georgia” that twelve years later, actually twelve years signed, but fifteen years later these kids that grew up playing a little bar in Atlanta called The Rec Room in front of fifty to a hundred people are now being invited to go and play for the men and women who protect our country, and to be personally invited to do that was just an honor.  Not a lot of people get to do things like that, so we felt very blessed, and it made us feel amazing inside.  We’ve had so many opportunities to do, ya know, Woodstock and some of the tours that we’ve done, they’ve been great, they’ve been highlights, but to do something like that.  It just sets itself apart.

AWAY-TEAM:  It’s good to see people giving back to those guys. 

MORGAN ROSE:  Oh Yeah!

AWAY-TEAM:   You mentioned Tommy Lee earlier, Tommy has a tremendous amount of respect for you.  You actually got to fill in for him a few times, how was that experience?  I mean it’s fucking Motley Crue, was it intimidating? Was it exciting?  How’d that all pan out?

MORGAN ROSE:  It was terrifying, because I got the call to do that just a few hours before I actually hit the stage.  I mean, I got the call and in two hours I was at the airport getting on a plane that I barely made, to Cincinnati, to get to the venue, and in another two hours I was on stage.  And I didn’t know how to play any of the songs, I mean it was nerve-wracking to say the least.  But he’s one of my best friends, and I love him dearly, and for him to call me and have me fill in for him in a pinch was definitely an honor.  And to be able to, I can put that in my memory bank, and in my book of accomplishments.  I mean Nikki Sixx actually put out a press release, that said “As of now Motley Crue’s a five man band”, and I was like “WOW” that was cool.

AWAY-TEAM:  You’ve had some dark times in the past few years.  You admittedly were not in it mentally, but you’ve pulled through and seem to have a renewed vigor.  You’ve just put out one of your best albums to date, where’s Morgan Rose at now? And what’s the plan after Sevendust?

MORGAN ROSE:  I’m in a great place right now.  I’ve got a great girlfriend that…I think that, short of doing this for a living and some of the damage that it does to you out here, ya know it is sort of a fantasy world, I mean everything that we do out here is so far from reality sometimes, that you get home and you gotta learn how to be a human being again.  And we spend so much time on the road, that sometimes your decision making on the people that you’re with can be a little clouded.  I’ve got two great kids, out of the people that I’ve made the decision to be with prior to my current girlfriend… and there was a lot of quick decisions that were made without really knowing each other well enough.  And then with those situations, I’ve lived and learned and we’re taking it at the right pace I think.  I’ve got a great girl, and I’ve got great kids, and I get along with both the exes just fine, so… I’m in a much better place now than I’ve been in, god ya know, maybe ever.

AWAY-TEAM:  That’s about all that you can ask for, to get along with the exes. (laughs)

MORGAN ROSE:  Yeah.  And as far as after Sevendust, I don’t know.  It occupies so much of your time, ya know Clint works endlessly on trying to create music for this band, or for somebody else or, that’s his outlet to be able to stay consistently working on music.  You know he’s gonna have a baby soon, and that’ll probably slow him down, and he knows it.  It’s something that I think about, but I’m still thinking that we got this thing on the track right now for a while to come, ya know, our bodies are not breaking down as quick as I thought they would.  Ya know, fifteen years of playing together, and thirteen years on the road, you’d figure that the bodies would break down quicker than they have, and “knock on wood” we’re doing pretty good.

AWAY-TEAM:  So, no plans on being a pro craps player? Because I hear you guys are getting a bit of practice.

MORGAN ROSE:  (laughs) Oh we’re doing… we play cee-lo back there.

AWAY-TEAM:  Lewis (Cosby of the band 10 years) was telling me that. (laughs)

MORGAN ROSE:  Oh yeah man.  That’s our little getaway.  I mean, after doing this for so long, it’s like you’ll find anything to spice up the situation, and that’s fun and you might walk away with a few bucks as well.

AWAY-TEAM:  You have a clothing company called Alien Freak Wear.  How did that get started?  And I understand a portion of the proceeds go to charity?

MORGAN ROSE:  Yeah.  And that thing totally got started, actually the brains behind the whole thing was my first wife (former Coal Chamber bassist Rayna Foss).  I was doing a signing one day, and I signed that little alien face, and I started signing that on all my autographs because people wanted me to do it, and it sort of became my logo.  She said you should put it on a t-shirt and sell it, and I was like “I don’t know who would buy it”.  She told me “You’d be surprised, you’ve got a pretty loyal group of people that follow your band and it wouldn’t be that tough, and we could do something for the kids, and for charity…”  I though it couldn’t hurt, and we’ll do it just to see what happens, and it did really well.  And then I went through a divorce, and we shut it down.  Then I got re-married (to former Playmate Teri Harrison), she said “You should do that again”, and I did it again, and I got a divorce, and I shut it down…and then ya know, it started up again, and it’s doing real well now.

AWAY-TEAM:  Is there any particular charity that goes to?  Or is it just kinda spread out?

MORGAN ROSE:  Uh, well we’ve changed it a few times.  Give a little bit out here, a little bit out there.  The Children’s Shelter of Atlanta, is one of the ones that we like dealing with alot.

AWAY-TEAM:  In a movie about your life, who plays you?

MORGAN ROSE:  Probably uh, Screech.  (laughs) No…

AWAY-TEAM:  (laughs)

MORGAN ROSE:  God, I don’t know.  Probably Screech!  (laughs)  That’s probably closer to how things have been going, I think I made out better, hopefully, than Screech, but early on I think I was probably Screech.

AWAY-TEAM:  Being the second band out on this tour, and coming out so early, as opposed to what you’re used to in being a headliner, how does that change your daily routine?  And is it a welcome change?

MORGAN ROSE:  Yeah, I mean it’s cool, it’s a short set.  We’re in and out, so we usually don’t stay up until four or five anymore, because when you finish a show at midnight it takes a while to wind down.  Here, we’re off by seven, and ready to go to bed by midnight.  So a little more rest, and we love all the guys out on the tour, so we have a good time with ‘em, so it’s really easy actually.

 AWAY-TEAM:  So with a short set like that, how do you choose a set list?  And aside from the new stuff, is there an old Sevendust staple that must be played every night?

MORGAN ROSE:  Uh, yeah, “Face to Face” gets played every night no matter what.  That’s the one song that never leaves.  But like “Black” is in and out, “Denial” is in and out, “Praise” is in there every night too.

AWAY-TEAM:  I think my all time favorite is “Wired”

MORGAN ROSE:  Yeah, we haven’t played that one in a while!

AWAY-TEAM:  I know!  So aside from the travel, and missing your family and girlfriend, what’s the hardest part of being on the road?

MORGAN ROSE:  Eating.  Eating the right stuff!

AWAY-TEAM:  I hear that. (laughs)   Ten words or less, describe the Carnival of Madness.

MORGAN ROSE:  A lot of dice, a lot of drinking, a lot of sleep!

AWAY-TEAM:  (laughs) Well hey Morgan, thanks for your time, it’s been an honor.

MORGAN ROSE:  Thank you, I really appreciate it.

AWAY-TEAM:  Hopefully we’ll talk again soon in the near future.

MORGAN ROSE:  Sounds good, man.  Talk to you soon.

You can catch Sevendust on this fall’s Hard Drive Live Tour with special guests 10 Years and Since October

For more info, including tour dates and to purchase music, visit http://www.sevendust.com/  For more info on Morgan Rose and Alien Freak Wear visit http://www.alienfreakwear.com/

Special thanks go to Morgan Rose for so graciously giving me his time, and Julie Lichtenstein at SKH Music and Amanda Cagan at ABC PR for making it all happen.

Band photos courtesy of Jeremy Adamo.  Individual photo courtesy of Marcy Royce.